Adobe Experience Manager 6.2 includes the classic and touch-optimized UI. Customers have to make the decision about which to use during the project implementation, or when updating from an earlier release.

This document is intended to help with finding the right choice. It will be updated as new updates and best practices become available.

Terms of interest:

Classic UI
User interface based on ExtJS technology that was introduced with CQ 5.1 in 2008.

Touch-optimized UI
New(er) user interface that was introduced in 5.6.0 as a technology preview and extended in subsequent releases. It is based on the unified user experience for the Adobe Marketing Cloud.

Site Admin
Capabilities to manage the site hierarchy (move, activate, managed references) and create new pages.

Client Context
Capabilities to aggregate information about the visitor and use it for various purposes. Provides an user interface to simulate persons visiting the site. Starting AEM 6.2, ContextHub is replacing the Client Context.

General

Adobe has updated all the Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions with a touch-optimized user interface. Users across the Marketing Cloud solutions (that includes Adobe Experience Manager) enjoy an unified experiences and common patterns on how to use and operate the applications.

The original user interface for Adobe Experience Manager (previously known as CQ5), introduced in 2008 and used by all customers running versions 5.0-5.6.1, is present in 6.2. This guarantees that customers can update to 6.2, and benefit from an updated platform with new capabilities while using the same user interface.

Adobe recommends customers to plan to switch to the touch-optimized UI in 2016/17. This can be done during an update to 6.2 - or in a separate projects after the update, that would include the necessary adjustments to the customizations and component dialogs.

Customers running 6.2 will benefit from full production support using the classic user interface.

Rules and Recommendations

The following is a list of recommendations from Product Management for Adobe Experience Manager 6.2:

My project...

Recommendations

Is just starting to use Adobe Experience Manager.

Use the touch-optimized UI per default for all users.

Be aware that limited admin and configuration tasks still need the classic UI. In future AEM updates these will be done in the touch-optimized UI. See list below of available updates.

Has used AEM for a while.

Has used the product UI out-of-the-box and developed custom components for the sites.

Update to 6.2.

Use the touch-optimized UI for site administration, assetes, .. etc.

Configure the "Edit Page" action to open the classic UI Page Editor. See Selecting Your UI.

Then, in a second phase:

Evaluate the touch-optimized UI Page Editor. The touch-optimized Page Editor is able to load/use component edit dialogs originally developed for the classic UI, by loading them as-is.

Create touch-optimized Dialgs for the most used components on your sites

Has built a site that uses the ClientContext with integrations.

Update to 6.2

Use the touch-optimized UI for site administration, assetes, .. etc.

Configure the "Edit Page" action to open the classic UI Page Editor. See Selecting Your UI.

Then, in a second phase:

Evaluate the touch-optimized UI Page Editor. The touch-optimized Page Editor is able to load/use component edit dialogs originally developed for the classic UI, by loading them as-is.

Create touch-optimized Dialgs for the most used components on your sites

Configure the ContextHub (the replacement for the ClientContext) and update the page templates to use the ContextHub. Note that the ContextHub has a compatibility mode that allows loading custom ClientContext stores.

Has used CQ/AEM for many years.

Has extended the product UI (e.g Site Admin) and built components with extensive edit dialogs.

Update to 6.2 and configure the classic UI as the default for page authoring for all users. See Selecting Your UI.

Then start a project to apply customization and optimize component dialogs for the touch-optimized UI. See Resources to Help.